Mar 29 late PM
When I checked the TuftsTravels site I found that the unfinished Mar 24 blog was published twice and in double spacing somehow. I guess the wonky WiFi at Remada held it or something, who knows. Anyway I have deleted both those & the expanded Mar 24 to Mar 29 with the cruise added on is in it's place.
Mar 30 early AM
Clear blue sky & sunny so looks like a good day shaping up.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Mar 24 to Mar 29 - the cruise, before and after
Mar 24, The Florida adventure continues
Down to the "welcome centre" to find out that the shuttle to presentation had left at 8:00. Sheila had specifically phoned them & was told to be at the Welcome Centre by 9:00 to go.
she thinks the woman she talked to assumed we had a car & could get to the presentation on our own. OK, so now the next tour is tomorrow, and the shuttle doesn't return until the afternoon so we have to check out, take our luggage with us & then we have to find a bus or cab to make our own way back into town,(the tour is about 13 miles west of downtown), to connect with the commuter train to West Palm Beach for the cruise ship boarding 1-3PM dragging suitcases all the way.
I am not pleased!
So, on with the day. We phone bus info & get times to get a bus from the Remada Inn location to the Jungle Queen boat tour of Fort Lauderdale's waterways & summer cottages of the rich & very rich. We bought $2.50 all day bus passes. The bus ride took a while & ran down the west side of Fort Lauderdale, we were the only Caucasians on a fairly full bus and it took about a hour to get to the boat dock on the Atlantic beach side. We discovered they keep the bus AC turned on even when they don't need it. Sheila said it was like spending an hour in a refrigerator wearing a light top & Capri pants!
The boat tour was well worth it.I took video & pictures of the summer cottages along the many waterways. They also said that you could go from here to New Jersey without ever going into the open ocean, also you could go south to the Florida Keys as well. The "cottages" were spectacular in size & location. Many were worth multi millions and they are all just vacation homes for people like the original owner of Wastech,his net now worth over 1 billion, also the Firestone family vacation home, owners of Radio shack, Oscar Mayer, Budweiser etc., etc. We saw a house once owned by Gloria Vanderbilt, Johnny Weisemuller, (tarzan in the old movies and an Olympic champion swimmer), Lee Majors place, (million dollar man), a house used by Al Capone as a speakeasy, & other houses owned by big auto dealership owners & CEOs. I'll try to attach some pictures. We stopped at an island for a break for nibbles and a crocodile handling demo. They can close their jaws with a very loud "WHAP". It was a 3 hour tour with lots of info and lots to see.
After that, we caught another bus to try to find the "Downtowner Pub" we had passed on the river tour. It offers cheap happy hour drinks, 2 for 1 appetizers and is the hangout of Jimmy Buffet when he is in town. We found it & Sheila had a couple of very strong vodka & cran/orange drinks for 2.75 each, she had to ask for extra mixer for each one. Finally away to more buses with the same passenger complexion as before. All really friendly people. A couple of times they overheard Sheila wondering about something & chimed in with an answer or help finding something. They are difficult to understand tho, with their southern/Creole accents, soft voices & fast speech! The bus drivers were all great in helping us find our destinations. Well, to bed early as we have to pack up everything and get up early to be down in the lobby with all our luggage for the "tour" shuttle leaving at 8. Apparently we will get breakfast out of it & we have lots of ammo to fire at them regarding their incompetent promoters and all the trouble & rigmarole we have had to put up with. I doubt I will have WiFi on board at least not without a considerable cost, (the onboard internet was 5o cents a min), so it may be a while till next blog, that is if I can get this one sent as the hotel WiFi keeps dropping out. This Ramada is a dump!
Mar 25, getting to the ship
Well, I don't have room to keep going with the next problems in detail. Here is the, hopefully, short version. After being continually assured that there was a complimentary shuttle waiting to take us to our cruise ship in West Palm Beach,(so no need to rush through our presentation) we were told that "yes", there was a shuttle, but "No" it wasn't complimentary. By now our plan to cab a short distance to a mall then bus to the Tri-Rail station & train to West Palm Beach had run out of time. We had to pay $90.00 for a shuttle car to the cruise ship up the hwy at 70 mph+ to make the ship barely an hour before sailing. At which point we hadn't had lunch & all the restaurants were closing for the afternoon till supper. No food available for an hour, 0h the horror, the horror!!!. Not only did we miss lunch, but we missed most of the party leading up to "sail away"!!
Mar 25 to 28, on board our 2 cruises
The cruise was fine, it's only a 1,000 pass.ship so--less of everything we have had on previous cruises. We booked a shore excision snorkeling trip in Bahamian water only to have it canceled due to high wave activity. At the end of the first cruise the ship was good in that they let us leave our big suitcases (2) on board so we walk off with shoulder bags went through Customs, (a breeze), out the front door & back in to check in and board again. Our new cabin was in the exact same position on the opposite side of the ship from the first so we had a large window looking out the other side. For the second cruise we booked the snorkeling with a day, (incl. lunch buffet) at a resort called "Our Lucaya"--a multi acre 5 star resort. The snorkeling was canceled again, due to high winds, so we went to the beach to swim. We had lounge chairs on the sand so were quite comfortable. The water, I must report, was not as warm as the Caribbean, Tahiti, or Australia - in Queensland, but once in, it was fine. It was a nice day.
I have not been covering much ground in the last couple of days as just before the cruise, both my calf muscles were really sore & stiff, we don't know exactly why but are guessing it was due to wearing my sandals for a lot of the walking around in Fort Lauderdale and they have no good heel, arch or foot support.
Tomorrow we disembark, make our way about 5 miles to the Tri-Rail station by cab for about an 1 1/2 hour ride to Ft Lauderdale & then about a 4 mile cab to the Red Carpet Inn, our motel for the next two nights before flying back to California. I hope my next line tomorrow will be: ....an uneventful trip, arrived OK.
Mon Mar 29 disembarkation & down to Fort Lauderdale
Uneventful trip, arrived OK: off ship, took cab to train, train to Fort Lauderdale, bus to Red Carpet Inn, checked in for 2 nights, all OK so far. Good WiFi connection & restaurant on site, bus stop a cpl hundred feet away.
Down to the "welcome centre" to find out that the shuttle to presentation had left at 8:00. Sheila had specifically phoned them & was told to be at the Welcome Centre by 9:00 to go.
she thinks the woman she talked to assumed we had a car & could get to the presentation on our own. OK, so now the next tour is tomorrow, and the shuttle doesn't return until the afternoon so we have to check out, take our luggage with us & then we have to find a bus or cab to make our own way back into town,(the tour is about 13 miles west of downtown), to connect with the commuter train to West Palm Beach for the cruise ship boarding 1-3PM dragging suitcases all the way.
I am not pleased!
So, on with the day. We phone bus info & get times to get a bus from the Remada Inn location to the Jungle Queen boat tour of Fort Lauderdale's waterways & summer cottages of the rich & very rich. We bought $2.50 all day bus passes. The bus ride took a while & ran down the west side of Fort Lauderdale, we were the only Caucasians on a fairly full bus and it took about a hour to get to the boat dock on the Atlantic beach side. We discovered they keep the bus AC turned on even when they don't need it. Sheila said it was like spending an hour in a refrigerator wearing a light top & Capri pants!
The boat tour was well worth it.I took video & pictures of the summer cottages along the many waterways. They also said that you could go from here to New Jersey without ever going into the open ocean, also you could go south to the Florida Keys as well. The "cottages" were spectacular in size & location. Many were worth multi millions and they are all just vacation homes for people like the original owner of Wastech,his net now worth over 1 billion, also the Firestone family vacation home, owners of Radio shack, Oscar Mayer, Budweiser etc., etc. We saw a house once owned by Gloria Vanderbilt, Johnny Weisemuller, (tarzan in the old movies and an Olympic champion swimmer), Lee Majors place, (million dollar man), a house used by Al Capone as a speakeasy, & other houses owned by big auto dealership owners & CEOs. I'll try to attach some pictures. We stopped at an island for a break for nibbles and a crocodile handling demo. They can close their jaws with a very loud "WHAP". It was a 3 hour tour with lots of info and lots to see.
After that, we caught another bus to try to find the "Downtowner Pub" we had passed on the river tour. It offers cheap happy hour drinks, 2 for 1 appetizers and is the hangout of Jimmy Buffet when he is in town. We found it & Sheila had a couple of very strong vodka & cran/orange drinks for 2.75 each, she had to ask for extra mixer for each one. Finally away to more buses with the same passenger complexion as before. All really friendly people. A couple of times they overheard Sheila wondering about something & chimed in with an answer or help finding something. They are difficult to understand tho, with their southern/Creole accents, soft voices & fast speech! The bus drivers were all great in helping us find our destinations. Well, to bed early as we have to pack up everything and get up early to be down in the lobby with all our luggage for the "tour" shuttle leaving at 8. Apparently we will get breakfast out of it & we have lots of ammo to fire at them regarding their incompetent promoters and all the trouble & rigmarole we have had to put up with. I doubt I will have WiFi on board at least not without a considerable cost, (the onboard internet was 5o cents a min), so it may be a while till next blog, that is if I can get this one sent as the hotel WiFi keeps dropping out. This Ramada is a dump!
Mar 25, getting to the ship
Well, I don't have room to keep going with the next problems in detail. Here is the, hopefully, short version. After being continually assured that there was a complimentary shuttle waiting to take us to our cruise ship in West Palm Beach,(so no need to rush through our presentation) we were told that "yes", there was a shuttle, but "No" it wasn't complimentary. By now our plan to cab a short distance to a mall then bus to the Tri-Rail station & train to West Palm Beach had run out of time. We had to pay $90.00 for a shuttle car to the cruise ship up the hwy at 70 mph+ to make the ship barely an hour before sailing. At which point we hadn't had lunch & all the restaurants were closing for the afternoon till supper. No food available for an hour, 0h the horror, the horror!!!. Not only did we miss lunch, but we missed most of the party leading up to "sail away"!!
Mar 25 to 28, on board our 2 cruises
The cruise was fine, it's only a 1,000 pass.ship so--less of everything we have had on previous cruises. We booked a shore excision snorkeling trip in Bahamian water only to have it canceled due to high wave activity. At the end of the first cruise the ship was good in that they let us leave our big suitcases (2) on board so we walk off with shoulder bags went through Customs, (a breeze), out the front door & back in to check in and board again. Our new cabin was in the exact same position on the opposite side of the ship from the first so we had a large window looking out the other side. For the second cruise we booked the snorkeling with a day, (incl. lunch buffet) at a resort called "Our Lucaya"--a multi acre 5 star resort. The snorkeling was canceled again, due to high winds, so we went to the beach to swim. We had lounge chairs on the sand so were quite comfortable. The water, I must report, was not as warm as the Caribbean, Tahiti, or Australia - in Queensland, but once in, it was fine. It was a nice day.
I have not been covering much ground in the last couple of days as just before the cruise, both my calf muscles were really sore & stiff, we don't know exactly why but are guessing it was due to wearing my sandals for a lot of the walking around in Fort Lauderdale and they have no good heel, arch or foot support.
Tomorrow we disembark, make our way about 5 miles to the Tri-Rail station by cab for about an 1 1/2 hour ride to Ft Lauderdale & then about a 4 mile cab to the Red Carpet Inn, our motel for the next two nights before flying back to California. I hope my next line tomorrow will be: ....an uneventful trip, arrived OK.
Mon Mar 29 disembarkation & down to Fort Lauderdale
Uneventful trip, arrived OK: off ship, took cab to train, train to Fort Lauderdale, bus to Red Carpet Inn, checked in for 2 nights, all OK so far. Good WiFi connection & restaurant on site, bus stop a cpl hundred feet away.
On board
With the Captain, entrance to the View Lounge. The nights special is 2 for 1 drinks. They also have the right idea, you buy one drink for $7, keep the plastic glass & get refills for $4. I even found a good drink - coffee, ice cream & chocolate for $4 or 2 for $4 at Meet the Captain night.
Exiting West Palm Beach harbour, a narrow passage with this neat beach
At dock, West Palm Beach looking towards downtown
Here we are, just off the shipWhile I sat with my sore calf muscles Sheila whooped it up on the View Lounge dance floor. This video was taken with Sheila's new camera, hand held by me so it is a bit unsteady at times.
At the resort, Grand Bahamas Island
Sheila in one of the curved pools winding through the resort
Me, admiring the pools clear, cool, water
At the lunch buffet restaurant, neat decore
Sheila in another resort pool, right on the beach, swim up bar on the right
Sheila in the water at the resort beach
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
to Florida Mar 23
On route to Florida - Mar 23 - Blogging to you from 34,000
feet. We are about 2 hours out of Phoenix headed east. Our
day started OK, we got away from GVP, got the RV stored OK,
& off down the hwy to the airport. Arrived, parked, got
shuttle to US Airways terminal, we were next at the check in
line & to the gate with about an hour to flight time. They
announced that due to a full aircraft they would do courtesy
checked baggage to help eliminate carry-ons so we did our
2nd checked bag, (1st one was $25.00), and started to board
at 12:10 for our 12:40 departure. Then the pilot came on to
say they had discovered a very small cut or nick in one of
the tires & needed to have it checked out by a maintenance
mechanic. Well after numerous announcements that all would
be ready in "minutes" we finally pulled out of the gate at
1:35 & took off @ 1:45. Our connection in Phoenix is supposed
to take off at 3:00. We land at 2:40 but there is no one to
man the exit ramp gate to move it to the plane, off finally
at 3:00 at gate 13, walked 15 feet to gate 14 to the line
already boarding our flight to Fort Lauderdale. It pulled
away from the gate at 3:15 and we were down the runway &
wheels up by 3:30. We didn't get to obtain any food at the
airport as was the plan so we had to buy on board. We were
back in row 25 and they started serving from the front &
were out of Sheila & my selections by the time they got
here. Second choice had to do. They do provide free pop &
coffee still. Note to Adeline, your laptop works fine at
34,000 feet. We arrived Fort Lauderdale with a bang,
literally, it was a hard landing, just a big bang though, no
problems. Touchdown at 7:05 our time 10:05 local time. Took
a cab to the "bargain" hotel we were offered at a low rate
if we listen to their presentation, the special rate they
offered was $49.00 total for two nights. They didn't
mention the $15.00 a night room tax and the fact that it was
a $45.00 cab ride from the airport. The regular rate on this
Remada Inn is $125.00 a night, incl tax, so it is about half
price, (we pay out $124.00). The Red Carpet Inn we booked
for the 2 nights for our return trip is $146.00 for the 2
nights total and is about a $5.00 cab fare from the airport,
and we don't have to waste time listening to some time share
sales pitch. At least this Remada has WiFi so I am posting
this tonight. More to follow sooner or later.
feet. We are about 2 hours out of Phoenix headed east. Our
day started OK, we got away from GVP, got the RV stored OK,
& off down the hwy to the airport. Arrived, parked, got
shuttle to US Airways terminal, we were next at the check in
line & to the gate with about an hour to flight time. They
announced that due to a full aircraft they would do courtesy
checked baggage to help eliminate carry-ons so we did our
2nd checked bag, (1st one was $25.00), and started to board
at 12:10 for our 12:40 departure. Then the pilot came on to
say they had discovered a very small cut or nick in one of
the tires & needed to have it checked out by a maintenance
mechanic. Well after numerous announcements that all would
be ready in "minutes" we finally pulled out of the gate at
1:35 & took off @ 1:45. Our connection in Phoenix is supposed
to take off at 3:00. We land at 2:40 but there is no one to
man the exit ramp gate to move it to the plane, off finally
at 3:00 at gate 13, walked 15 feet to gate 14 to the line
already boarding our flight to Fort Lauderdale. It pulled
away from the gate at 3:15 and we were down the runway &
wheels up by 3:30. We didn't get to obtain any food at the
airport as was the plan so we had to buy on board. We were
back in row 25 and they started serving from the front &
were out of Sheila & my selections by the time they got
here. Second choice had to do. They do provide free pop &
coffee still. Note to Adeline, your laptop works fine at
34,000 feet. We arrived Fort Lauderdale with a bang,
literally, it was a hard landing, just a big bang though, no
problems. Touchdown at 7:05 our time 10:05 local time. Took
a cab to the "bargain" hotel we were offered at a low rate
if we listen to their presentation, the special rate they
offered was $49.00 total for two nights. They didn't
mention the $15.00 a night room tax and the fact that it was
a $45.00 cab ride from the airport. The regular rate on this
Remada Inn is $125.00 a night, incl tax, so it is about half
price, (we pay out $124.00). The Red Carpet Inn we booked
for the 2 nights for our return trip is $146.00 for the 2
nights total and is about a $5.00 cab fare from the airport,
and we don't have to waste time listening to some time share
sales pitch. At least this Remada has WiFi so I am posting
this tonight. More to follow sooner or later.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Mar 19 - 22
March 19-22
Friday nights play, "The Love List" turned out to be great. We liked it probably the best of the 3 we've seen.
Sat after VB Sheila went out shopping again and when she returned I finally got to go on the roof to do the caulking for the minor water leak that developed. I'm pretty sure I found & resealed the spot. It was at the top left rear courner. I have also added sealer to both rear courners top to bottom & around the rear window. I put a lot of sealing goop in & around the top courner, so now we wait for a rain storm & find out if I got all the spots. We BBQ'd supper & ate outside in the nice weather. It has often been warm enough to eat outside but until DST kicked in it always was getting dark too early. We are off to the dance with Rockin' Rhonda. We were late getting there & it's a good thing we had seats saved by Gerry & Sheila as it was jambed full. Rhonda's group comprises a fantastic keyboard player, drummer, bass guitar & Rhonda plays guitar. They had the dance floor full doing the twist and good ol' rock & roll as well as several line dance numbers.
Sun after VB we went out to the KFC buffet for lunch. For $7.79 (seniors price) you have a choice of 3 kinds of chicken, grilled, original & crispy plus a lasagna, another pasta dish, vegetables, mashed potatoes with 2 kinds of gravy, salad stuff & dessert of apple cobbler, vanilla pudding, various fruits, canned & fresh it also included your drink from the self serve fountain. After that we drove down to Temecula Old Town where the Blue Grass festival was on. They had groups playing on the streets plus a main stage set up which had chairs on grass so we sat there, all free. They also had groups playing in the theatre - A/C & with nice seats. Sheila saw one group advertised that she wanted to see so she paid $5.00 to go in. She talked me into joining her later & I did but I thought the outdoor free groups were just as good as the indoor ones. We found Gerry & Sheila at the free stage. We got there about 3PM & after it all ended at 6PM we all went back to the Souplantation for a late supper.
It's Monday, our last VB day, we said good by, see you next year to everyone. Neva, a 6 month resident took several people's emails so she could keep people updated on happenings here. Next is packing to head out early Tues to store the RV & drive to the airport. We will take the laptop so if I find WiFi I may be able to post to the blog before we return, if not I will be able to add stuff for a massive trip report blog upon return. I played in the Monday crib tourny while Sheila packed & watched dancing with the stars. I won top prise again but due to only 8 people there I only won $3, (of which $1 was entrance fee), once I won $6.00. It's now 11PM & Sheila is almost finished packing, she didn't want me to pack as she dosen't like they way I pack. It's taken a lot of practice to reach this point!!!!
Friday nights play, "The Love List" turned out to be great. We liked it probably the best of the 3 we've seen.
Sat after VB Sheila went out shopping again and when she returned I finally got to go on the roof to do the caulking for the minor water leak that developed. I'm pretty sure I found & resealed the spot. It was at the top left rear courner. I have also added sealer to both rear courners top to bottom & around the rear window. I put a lot of sealing goop in & around the top courner, so now we wait for a rain storm & find out if I got all the spots. We BBQ'd supper & ate outside in the nice weather. It has often been warm enough to eat outside but until DST kicked in it always was getting dark too early. We are off to the dance with Rockin' Rhonda. We were late getting there & it's a good thing we had seats saved by Gerry & Sheila as it was jambed full. Rhonda's group comprises a fantastic keyboard player, drummer, bass guitar & Rhonda plays guitar. They had the dance floor full doing the twist and good ol' rock & roll as well as several line dance numbers.
Sun after VB we went out to the KFC buffet for lunch. For $7.79 (seniors price) you have a choice of 3 kinds of chicken, grilled, original & crispy plus a lasagna, another pasta dish, vegetables, mashed potatoes with 2 kinds of gravy, salad stuff & dessert of apple cobbler, vanilla pudding, various fruits, canned & fresh it also included your drink from the self serve fountain. After that we drove down to Temecula Old Town where the Blue Grass festival was on. They had groups playing on the streets plus a main stage set up which had chairs on grass so we sat there, all free. They also had groups playing in the theatre - A/C & with nice seats. Sheila saw one group advertised that she wanted to see so she paid $5.00 to go in. She talked me into joining her later & I did but I thought the outdoor free groups were just as good as the indoor ones. We found Gerry & Sheila at the free stage. We got there about 3PM & after it all ended at 6PM we all went back to the Souplantation for a late supper.
It's Monday, our last VB day, we said good by, see you next year to everyone. Neva, a 6 month resident took several people's emails so she could keep people updated on happenings here. Next is packing to head out early Tues to store the RV & drive to the airport. We will take the laptop so if I find WiFi I may be able to post to the blog before we return, if not I will be able to add stuff for a massive trip report blog upon return. I played in the Monday crib tourny while Sheila packed & watched dancing with the stars. I won top prise again but due to only 8 people there I only won $3, (of which $1 was entrance fee), once I won $6.00. It's now 11PM & Sheila is almost finished packing, she didn't want me to pack as she dosen't like they way I pack. It's taken a lot of practice to reach this point!!!!
Friday, March 19, 2010
March 17 - 19
Mar 17 - 19
Today, Wed. March 17, we went to a Best Buy to get Sheila a new camera like the one Michael has that she can use easier & not take blurry pictures all the time. While she was looking at cameras I wandered around looking at small TV's suitable for the RV and the wall mount type brackets to see how they worked. Then I saw a large TV, over 40 inches, maybe 50, and the picture was not all that clear. Then I saw some glasses beside an easy chair & the sign - 3D TV!!!!!!! I sat down, put the glasses on & it was unbelievable, 3D just like in the movies. The film was that animated one about the girl that gets super powers & they lock her away with 3 other "monsters" - a blob, a cockroach, (I think), & a kind of prehistoric fish lizard thing, it also had a giant caterpiller or something. I forgot the title, Ken & I saw it together. Anyway the 3D effect was very, very good. I talked to the salesperson and he said they just got them in a few months ago so I'll bet the Canadian Best Buy may not have even heard of them. You do need a special TV, blue ray player, the 3D glasses, which are hard wired to something, and a blu ray 3D movie disc. The TV was on at around $2600.00 and they said the glasses are $140 a pair, plus there's your blu ray player. Still, for around $3,000 or so you can watch 3D movies on your TV.
By the time we had got away from GVP & down to the Best Buy in Murrietta and bought the camera it was supper time so we just had to go back to the Souplantation for another nummy meal. I'm not sure if it was a plot by Sheila to get taken out for supper but fortunatly it worked. It was hot today,80F, (28C), we used the A/C driving down & back.
Oh, & the camera Sheila did buy is an Olympus stylus tough 6020, it is apparantly waterproof to 16 feet, shock proof if dropped from 5 feet, dust proof, has 14 mega pixles, & it says HD movie for the video part.
Thursday arrived hot & sunny again. After our VB regular noon finish a few of us played VB for another 45 mins before retiring to the hot tub & then lunch. We have our storage for the RV booked for a week (8 days) at a local mobil home park for only $20.00 and Sheila went off to pay them, get the storage gate combo & do a little shopping. We BBQ'd supper and I went off to Mex Trains but Sheila said she was tired & had emails to read & deal with. I returned from Mex Trains to find her & the car gone. She wasn't too tired to go shopping again!
Fri I took the camera to test it at VB & then to see if I could download pictures to the Laptop. I didn't buy a memory card as we have one in our old camera, one in my phone & one in the picture viewer, something must fit!. The phone card fit into an adapter & I could put it into the camera. I have no idea how many pictures it will hold but as I actually figured out how to download to the computer we can use it & download every day or so. My next problem is that the instruction manual is in the internal memory of the camera & a message comes on screen to hook it to a PC, which I did but nothing happened & I have no idea how to access the instructions. Maybe have to go back to Best Buy to find out how.
Tonight we (me & Sheila, Gerri & Sheila) are going to the dinner show of "The Love List" comedy play. We've seen 2 other plays by the same group and enjoyed them both. More on the play next post.
Today, Wed. March 17, we went to a Best Buy to get Sheila a new camera like the one Michael has that she can use easier & not take blurry pictures all the time. While she was looking at cameras I wandered around looking at small TV's suitable for the RV and the wall mount type brackets to see how they worked. Then I saw a large TV, over 40 inches, maybe 50, and the picture was not all that clear. Then I saw some glasses beside an easy chair & the sign - 3D TV!!!!!!! I sat down, put the glasses on & it was unbelievable, 3D just like in the movies. The film was that animated one about the girl that gets super powers & they lock her away with 3 other "monsters" - a blob, a cockroach, (I think), & a kind of prehistoric fish lizard thing, it also had a giant caterpiller or something. I forgot the title, Ken & I saw it together. Anyway the 3D effect was very, very good. I talked to the salesperson and he said they just got them in a few months ago so I'll bet the Canadian Best Buy may not have even heard of them. You do need a special TV, blue ray player, the 3D glasses, which are hard wired to something, and a blu ray 3D movie disc. The TV was on at around $2600.00 and they said the glasses are $140 a pair, plus there's your blu ray player. Still, for around $3,000 or so you can watch 3D movies on your TV.
By the time we had got away from GVP & down to the Best Buy in Murrietta and bought the camera it was supper time so we just had to go back to the Souplantation for another nummy meal. I'm not sure if it was a plot by Sheila to get taken out for supper but fortunatly it worked. It was hot today,80F, (28C), we used the A/C driving down & back.
Oh, & the camera Sheila did buy is an Olympus stylus tough 6020, it is apparantly waterproof to 16 feet, shock proof if dropped from 5 feet, dust proof, has 14 mega pixles, & it says HD movie for the video part.
Thursday arrived hot & sunny again. After our VB regular noon finish a few of us played VB for another 45 mins before retiring to the hot tub & then lunch. We have our storage for the RV booked for a week (8 days) at a local mobil home park for only $20.00 and Sheila went off to pay them, get the storage gate combo & do a little shopping. We BBQ'd supper and I went off to Mex Trains but Sheila said she was tired & had emails to read & deal with. I returned from Mex Trains to find her & the car gone. She wasn't too tired to go shopping again!
Fri I took the camera to test it at VB & then to see if I could download pictures to the Laptop. I didn't buy a memory card as we have one in our old camera, one in my phone & one in the picture viewer, something must fit!. The phone card fit into an adapter & I could put it into the camera. I have no idea how many pictures it will hold but as I actually figured out how to download to the computer we can use it & download every day or so. My next problem is that the instruction manual is in the internal memory of the camera & a message comes on screen to hook it to a PC, which I did but nothing happened & I have no idea how to access the instructions. Maybe have to go back to Best Buy to find out how.
Tonight we (me & Sheila, Gerri & Sheila) are going to the dinner show of "The Love List" comedy play. We've seen 2 other plays by the same group and enjoyed them both. More on the play next post.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
March 14-16
Mar 14 - 16
The Chinese restaurant is called Mr You's. For future reference it is up Sanderson at Esplanade in the big Mall on the right. It is a counter service place and they use those big square take out boxes for the food. The price for rice, chow mein & 1 entree was $4.69, 2 entree's $5.69 & 3 emtree's $6.69. The rice and chow mein portions were huge, then they piled the entree(s) on top. Sheila picked a teriaki chicken as 1 of her entree's & they pulled out this full breast of chicken then cut it up with a cleaver. It was all they could do to close the take out box, what a deal!! Need less to say we brought some home, Sheila had probably 1/2 left over. Sunday eve instead of Bridge we went to hear Erma, (one of the VB players), singing in the ballroom, she does gospel stuff & Sheila really wanted to hear her.
Monday was our usual VB, lunch, music routine and over for the crib tournament in the eve. I got the booby prize, second week in a row, so I got my $1.00 back. The weather is finally what it should be, hot & sunny, (as opposed to warmish & sunny). The local full timers & long term residents have been saying this has been the maybe the worst winter ever for cool temps & rain.
Tuesday we set out on our bicycles for our last bike to breakfast ride. We went to 7 Hills Golf club. Their breakfast special of 2 eggs, 2 sausage patties, (or bacon), 2 pancakes was $3.49. Sheila had the biscuits & gravy, (it tastes better than it sounds), for $2.99. With the restaurant prices down here it's a wonder we ever eat in our RV at all, but then food prices are equally cheap. We were late getting back for VB so a few people wanted to play after the noon finish time so a few of us played to 1:00. Then had lunch at the Cabana & listened to Angela singing. The performers start at 11AM so we listen to them as we are playing VB in the pool, it's great playing to music.
After ploughing through Expedia on the weekend & yesterday I had finally found a motel with 24 hr shuttle to FLL for our return trip. Rather than book on-line Sheila wanted to phone to double check the shuttle thing. Well, first thing the booking guy says is ignore anything on the internet re 24 hr shuttle, it doesn't start till 5AM, we fly out at 6AM. So after a while they get another place that is reasonable, (nothing has a shuttle at 4AM other than maybe the $100 plus a night places), so she settles for something called the Red Carpet Inn, 4 miles from the airport at around $60 a night more or less not including hotel etc. taxes of around $15 or more a night.
After all that it is now late afternoon, it is 80F, (27C), in the RV so we have the fan on & windows open & Sheila went out to get some pre-prepared ready to eat salads at WinCo. We have a date with Gerry & Sheila to play the "Sticks" game tonight. Gerry emailed me the directions so we can set it up when we return. The only equipment is several decks of cards and about 50 sticks which are tongue depressors that I will have to put writing on for what you have to make from your hand of cards. I've played it but Sheila hasn't, my Sheila that is.
Wed plan is to go down to a Best Buy in Murrietta, (20 miles), as Sheila wants to get another digital camera like Michael & Adeline have that has a big display and is easier to use and has a longer lasting battery. More on that next post.
The Chinese restaurant is called Mr You's. For future reference it is up Sanderson at Esplanade in the big Mall on the right. It is a counter service place and they use those big square take out boxes for the food. The price for rice, chow mein & 1 entree was $4.69, 2 entree's $5.69 & 3 emtree's $6.69. The rice and chow mein portions were huge, then they piled the entree(s) on top. Sheila picked a teriaki chicken as 1 of her entree's & they pulled out this full breast of chicken then cut it up with a cleaver. It was all they could do to close the take out box, what a deal!! Need less to say we brought some home, Sheila had probably 1/2 left over. Sunday eve instead of Bridge we went to hear Erma, (one of the VB players), singing in the ballroom, she does gospel stuff & Sheila really wanted to hear her.
Monday was our usual VB, lunch, music routine and over for the crib tournament in the eve. I got the booby prize, second week in a row, so I got my $1.00 back. The weather is finally what it should be, hot & sunny, (as opposed to warmish & sunny). The local full timers & long term residents have been saying this has been the maybe the worst winter ever for cool temps & rain.
Tuesday we set out on our bicycles for our last bike to breakfast ride. We went to 7 Hills Golf club. Their breakfast special of 2 eggs, 2 sausage patties, (or bacon), 2 pancakes was $3.49. Sheila had the biscuits & gravy, (it tastes better than it sounds), for $2.99. With the restaurant prices down here it's a wonder we ever eat in our RV at all, but then food prices are equally cheap. We were late getting back for VB so a few people wanted to play after the noon finish time so a few of us played to 1:00. Then had lunch at the Cabana & listened to Angela singing. The performers start at 11AM so we listen to them as we are playing VB in the pool, it's great playing to music.
After ploughing through Expedia on the weekend & yesterday I had finally found a motel with 24 hr shuttle to FLL for our return trip. Rather than book on-line Sheila wanted to phone to double check the shuttle thing. Well, first thing the booking guy says is ignore anything on the internet re 24 hr shuttle, it doesn't start till 5AM, we fly out at 6AM. So after a while they get another place that is reasonable, (nothing has a shuttle at 4AM other than maybe the $100 plus a night places), so she settles for something called the Red Carpet Inn, 4 miles from the airport at around $60 a night more or less not including hotel etc. taxes of around $15 or more a night.
After all that it is now late afternoon, it is 80F, (27C), in the RV so we have the fan on & windows open & Sheila went out to get some pre-prepared ready to eat salads at WinCo. We have a date with Gerry & Sheila to play the "Sticks" game tonight. Gerry emailed me the directions so we can set it up when we return. The only equipment is several decks of cards and about 50 sticks which are tongue depressors that I will have to put writing on for what you have to make from your hand of cards. I've played it but Sheila hasn't, my Sheila that is.
Wed plan is to go down to a Best Buy in Murrietta, (20 miles), as Sheila wants to get another digital camera like Michael & Adeline have that has a big display and is easier to use and has a longer lasting battery. More on that next post.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Continuing with the Horse Racing eve. It was lots of fun, they gave us $130,000.00 "play" money to bet & buy a horse if we wanted. If you were a horse owner & he won, placed, or showed you won extra over what you may have bet, (10,000 for a win). You could bet up to 3 horses per race. At the end of the race they threw a die with numbers & if a winning horse number came up he was disqualified. I lost 80,000 in winnings when this happened to my horses. At the end of the evening the 3 top earners each won a bottle of wine. The top 3 were all over a million with over 2 mil for the grand winner, all with 130,000 starting money. They had profiles of the horses available so you could see how they did etc.
The weather is finally getting into the HOT category. Lots of people comeing out for water volley ball.
On Friday after a great VB session we made arrangements to go down to Temecula with Gerry & Sheila for the car show in Old Town Temecula. We left around 5, got there to find they had the main street in Old Town closed off for cruising. The street for several blocks had hot rods, antique, modified, & classic cars parked along the side and they also had them cruising up & down the road pretty much running bumper to bumper there were so many. We wandered up & down for almost 2 hours enjoying the sights & sounds of the cars. I've never seen so many neat old cars in one place before. I will try to add one or two pictures. I didn't take many as it was dark by 5:30 so was not good for taking pictures. After we went to a place called Souplantation which is a buffet type place. It has a long salad bar with many many choices then they have 5 or 6 different types of soup,the new england clam chowder was certainly one of the best I've ever had if not the best, 2 or 3 pastas,the mushroom Alfredo was my favorite, several types of breads, including 2 delicious Focasia types, and desert - a frozen yogurt dispenser, toppings, jello which really had a good flavour and an apple dish. As usual we left the restaurant stuffed. Souplantation is located on Ynez street (ave?) in a large mall across the road from the large mall that has Trader Joe's.
On Sat after a lovely warm to hot start to the day & a great VB game the wind started to gust a bit early PM & it got quite cooler. I spent the afternoon on the computer trying to find a motel/hotel in Fort Lauderdale for the 2 nights after we get off the boat. Because we have to fly out at 6AM I want to find one with a shuttle to the airport and also that is not to pricey. Once I find one I'll book it from here. In the eve we went to the dance with Rainbow Cottage. The dances go from 7 to 10so we have time after to catch up on emails, joournal writing & sometime a TV show we have recorded from earlier. It is late Sat night & we still haven't found time to watch Numbers from Fri night.
Sun morning and it is sunny & warm early, went over to the VB pool to discover it was full of people at only 9:55. Then we discovered that it was now daylight saveing time, we were an hour late! So we played a little 4 on 4 after the official noon finish until 12:30. Back to the RV for lunch. At the dance last night Sheila got the name of a Chinese restaurant near by that was highly recomended so I guess we are going out for supper tonight
The weather is finally getting into the HOT category. Lots of people comeing out for water volley ball.
On Friday after a great VB session we made arrangements to go down to Temecula with Gerry & Sheila for the car show in Old Town Temecula. We left around 5, got there to find they had the main street in Old Town closed off for cruising. The street for several blocks had hot rods, antique, modified, & classic cars parked along the side and they also had them cruising up & down the road pretty much running bumper to bumper there were so many. We wandered up & down for almost 2 hours enjoying the sights & sounds of the cars. I've never seen so many neat old cars in one place before. I will try to add one or two pictures. I didn't take many as it was dark by 5:30 so was not good for taking pictures. After we went to a place called Souplantation which is a buffet type place. It has a long salad bar with many many choices then they have 5 or 6 different types of soup,the new england clam chowder was certainly one of the best I've ever had if not the best, 2 or 3 pastas,the mushroom Alfredo was my favorite, several types of breads, including 2 delicious Focasia types, and desert - a frozen yogurt dispenser, toppings, jello which really had a good flavour and an apple dish. As usual we left the restaurant stuffed. Souplantation is located on Ynez street (ave?) in a large mall across the road from the large mall that has Trader Joe's.
On Sat after a lovely warm to hot start to the day & a great VB game the wind started to gust a bit early PM & it got quite cooler. I spent the afternoon on the computer trying to find a motel/hotel in Fort Lauderdale for the 2 nights after we get off the boat. Because we have to fly out at 6AM I want to find one with a shuttle to the airport and also that is not to pricey. Once I find one I'll book it from here. In the eve we went to the dance with Rainbow Cottage. The dances go from 7 to 10so we have time after to catch up on emails, joournal writing & sometime a TV show we have recorded from earlier. It is late Sat night & we still haven't found time to watch Numbers from Fri night.
Sun morning and it is sunny & warm early, went over to the VB pool to discover it was full of people at only 9:55. Then we discovered that it was now daylight saveing time, we were an hour late! So we played a little 4 on 4 after the official noon finish until 12:30. Back to the RV for lunch. At the dance last night Sheila got the name of a Chinese restaurant near by that was highly recomended so I guess we are going out for supper tonight
Temecula Car Show
One of the antique vehicles parked.
A work in progress. It looked like it was a real old time dog catcher truck. The one behind was done up as a fishing expidition car. I had to use flash & I don't have any programs to lighten the image to see more, they all went in the crash.
This fancy hot rod was one of the best we saw. The car just beside it is one of the cruisers goinf down the road.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
March 4 - 10
Our usual activities took up most of the days, water volley ball, crib tournies, Tuesdays bicycle to breakfast outing, Mex trains, shuffleboard, eating & listening to music. The weather is staying below normal & we did get some rain the other day.
We went to AAA about booking flights to Fort Lauderdale for Sheila's booked mini cruises & found out that they don't book flights only as a service but charge $35 per ticket/person because with all the internet booking sites the airlines will not pay agents anything for booking only flights anymore. So, reluctantly, I went on-line, got confused by the proliferation of sites as some seemed to be sites to pick sites to book. I went to Expedia which I had heard of and after a lot of rigamorole, confusion & major waiting for the computer to move from one screen to the other. I booked some flights. It then said check back in 24 hours to see if it is confirmed. That involved more waiting for information screens to open & then process my itinerary number. Maybe it is quicker on wired internet conections but on wireless it is s l o w. I also found out that what day of the week you fly is very relevant for the price. Tues, Wed, are the cheap days. Also Easter is early April so flying on April 1 or April 2, (good Friday), or even later, is not reasonable, (like over $100.00 more each). However what we have is as follows:
Fly out of Ontario airport, (ONT), in Riverside, (an hours drive away) on Mar 23 on US Airways flight 1552 at 12:40PM to Phoenix at 1:53PM where we change to US Airways flight 185 out at 3PM and finally arrive in Fort Lauderdale, (FLL), their time at 10:06PM. (Time zones add 3 hours to the time, it'll be about 8PM for us).
The return is on Mar 31 out of FLL at 6:00AM on Continental 1649 to Houston at 7:50AM then out on Continental 1723 at 9:45AM arriving ONT 11:25AM.
We could have gotten a 8:45 AM departure from FLL but that would have cost about $50.00 more per ticket. As it was the flights weren't too bad, $300.80 to fly east & $307.80 to fly west for both of us. To fly out of Palm Springs airport would have been a lot more money per ticket.
We also found out that airlines now charge per checked bag, $25-$35 each, they don't serve any meals, but you can buy food. One airline quoted drinks at $2 & snacks at $7 - note that they said snacks, not a meal for $7. I wonder what other fees etc. are out there we don't know about yet.
The cruise thing worked out OK in that we board ship on the 24th, then out to Bahamas & back, get off & an hour later get on again for a second mini cruise to a different part of the Bahamas. I think we are back on the 29th. The cruises go out of Port of Palm Beach, 47 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. However there is a West Coast Express type comuter train that runs all day with about an hour between trips & cost under $6.00 one way. The stops are located just a short cab ride from hotels & the ship dock.
We still need to find a hotel for the night of the 30th that has a shuttle to the airport for the 6AM departure for which we will have to be there by around 4AM or so, yuk!
So the plan is to drive out of the RV Park on the 23rd morning putting the RV in storage somewhere, drive the car to ONT, park in long term, which seems to be about $10.00 per day. Then when we return drive the car, get the RV & find somewhere for that night.
We spent this afternoon, (Wed), playing pegs & jokers with Sheila/Gerry & Sally/Fred & us. This evening there is a Horse Raceing evening in the ballroom. You are given play money to buy or bet on horses and the actual races are real races on a TV screen, (from a CD or tape). It's BYOB & finger food to share with your table, sounds like fun.
The forecast is for improving weather from now through the weekend into next week, I hope so. Everyone is saying this is the worst winter they have had here in years. It's still nicer than being at home but I would like a bit more hot sun.
We went to AAA about booking flights to Fort Lauderdale for Sheila's booked mini cruises & found out that they don't book flights only as a service but charge $35 per ticket/person because with all the internet booking sites the airlines will not pay agents anything for booking only flights anymore. So, reluctantly, I went on-line, got confused by the proliferation of sites as some seemed to be sites to pick sites to book. I went to Expedia which I had heard of and after a lot of rigamorole, confusion & major waiting for the computer to move from one screen to the other. I booked some flights. It then said check back in 24 hours to see if it is confirmed. That involved more waiting for information screens to open & then process my itinerary number. Maybe it is quicker on wired internet conections but on wireless it is s l o w. I also found out that what day of the week you fly is very relevant for the price. Tues, Wed, are the cheap days. Also Easter is early April so flying on April 1 or April 2, (good Friday), or even later, is not reasonable, (like over $100.00 more each). However what we have is as follows:
Fly out of Ontario airport, (ONT), in Riverside, (an hours drive away) on Mar 23 on US Airways flight 1552 at 12:40PM to Phoenix at 1:53PM where we change to US Airways flight 185 out at 3PM and finally arrive in Fort Lauderdale, (FLL), their time at 10:06PM. (Time zones add 3 hours to the time, it'll be about 8PM for us).
The return is on Mar 31 out of FLL at 6:00AM on Continental 1649 to Houston at 7:50AM then out on Continental 1723 at 9:45AM arriving ONT 11:25AM.
We could have gotten a 8:45 AM departure from FLL but that would have cost about $50.00 more per ticket. As it was the flights weren't too bad, $300.80 to fly east & $307.80 to fly west for both of us. To fly out of Palm Springs airport would have been a lot more money per ticket.
We also found out that airlines now charge per checked bag, $25-$35 each, they don't serve any meals, but you can buy food. One airline quoted drinks at $2 & snacks at $7 - note that they said snacks, not a meal for $7. I wonder what other fees etc. are out there we don't know about yet.
The cruise thing worked out OK in that we board ship on the 24th, then out to Bahamas & back, get off & an hour later get on again for a second mini cruise to a different part of the Bahamas. I think we are back on the 29th. The cruises go out of Port of Palm Beach, 47 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. However there is a West Coast Express type comuter train that runs all day with about an hour between trips & cost under $6.00 one way. The stops are located just a short cab ride from hotels & the ship dock.
We still need to find a hotel for the night of the 30th that has a shuttle to the airport for the 6AM departure for which we will have to be there by around 4AM or so, yuk!
So the plan is to drive out of the RV Park on the 23rd morning putting the RV in storage somewhere, drive the car to ONT, park in long term, which seems to be about $10.00 per day. Then when we return drive the car, get the RV & find somewhere for that night.
We spent this afternoon, (Wed), playing pegs & jokers with Sheila/Gerry & Sally/Fred & us. This evening there is a Horse Raceing evening in the ballroom. You are given play money to buy or bet on horses and the actual races are real races on a TV screen, (from a CD or tape). It's BYOB & finger food to share with your table, sounds like fun.
The forecast is for improving weather from now through the weekend into next week, I hope so. Everyone is saying this is the worst winter they have had here in years. It's still nicer than being at home but I would like a bit more hot sun.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Tues Mar 2 to Wed Mar 3
On Tuesday I got set for Sheila's return, filled up with propane, (tank took 12 US gallons so was quite empty), tidied up inside, & made the bed for the first time since she left.
Wed I played VB and went to listen to music & have lunch as usual but I couldn't sit still for long so went back to RV & got set up to meet her at Palm Springs airport. She had said she now had curly hair & was feeling tired so I might not recognise her. Therefore I got a large piece of cardboard & printed her name on it to hold up for arriveing passengers so that I wouldn't miss her. It worked, she found me. We headed off to Morongo Casino just off hwy 10 west of Palm Springs. They had a special for new "Winners Club" card members, we got 50% off a lunch buffet. They said to hurry down as it was now 4:15 & lunch stopped at 4:30. So we got in for half off lunch buffet just as the dinner prices were to start, we got the dinner selection too. It worked out great as lunch was $10 each & dinner $15 so we paid $10 for the both of us & got dinner selection. We finally waddled out around 6:00 and headed back to GVP where the Peter & Mary Show was to start at 7:00. A British couple doing songs, music, & comedy which went to 9:00. They asked if any birthdays today & Sheila put her hand up so the room sang her happy birthday, then later they called her up on stage, (and me too), did a magic trick with us both - (Peter was tying 2 scarfs together then had Sheila take the tied end & tuck it down her shirt front. Then me & Peter each pulled on a scarf end and it came out of her blouse with a bra atttached). They said for her birthday she won a prize of one of their music CD's and Sheila bought another one, we though they were quite good. After the show it was back to RV for a bit of TV & that ended the day.
Wed I played VB and went to listen to music & have lunch as usual but I couldn't sit still for long so went back to RV & got set up to meet her at Palm Springs airport. She had said she now had curly hair & was feeling tired so I might not recognise her. Therefore I got a large piece of cardboard & printed her name on it to hold up for arriveing passengers so that I wouldn't miss her. It worked, she found me. We headed off to Morongo Casino just off hwy 10 west of Palm Springs. They had a special for new "Winners Club" card members, we got 50% off a lunch buffet. They said to hurry down as it was now 4:15 & lunch stopped at 4:30. So we got in for half off lunch buffet just as the dinner prices were to start, we got the dinner selection too. It worked out great as lunch was $10 each & dinner $15 so we paid $10 for the both of us & got dinner selection. We finally waddled out around 6:00 and headed back to GVP where the Peter & Mary Show was to start at 7:00. A British couple doing songs, music, & comedy which went to 9:00. They asked if any birthdays today & Sheila put her hand up so the room sang her happy birthday, then later they called her up on stage, (and me too), did a magic trick with us both - (Peter was tying 2 scarfs together then had Sheila take the tied end & tuck it down her shirt front. Then me & Peter each pulled on a scarf end and it came out of her blouse with a bra atttached). They said for her birthday she won a prize of one of their music CD's and Sheila bought another one, we though they were quite good. After the show it was back to RV for a bit of TV & that ended the day.
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